Beverage Dynamics is the largest national business magazine devoted exclusively to the needs of off-premise beverage alcohol retailers, from single liquor stores to big box chains, through coverage of the latest trends in wine, beer and spirits.
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www.beveragedynamics.com July/August 2017• Beverage Dynamics 11 Trend- SPOTTING WHEN WE INITIALLY FIELDED RESEARCH on people's tastes, attitudes and preferences in the craft beer category, we expected to learn or validate much of what's already been discovered. Yes, people are suf- fering a bit from hop overdose. Fruit sours are growing in popularity. People increasingly treat craft beers like wine, pairing them with food. Consumers often discover new craft beers upon recommendation of bartenders and friends, so you need bar staff relations and social media programs to spread the word. Our research backs these trends up, but the question was — were there any surprises? Just one. When we asked consumers the fundamental question about how they defi ned craft beer, we were surprised. Conventional wisdom has been that most consumers consider craft beer to be created by small/regional brewers. When Coors rolled out Blue Moon, it was no accident that they attributed Keith Villa's creation to tiny Sandlot Brewing Com- pany and applied the timely discipline to not execute "Red, Light and Blue" displays for Fourth of July (Killian's Irish Red, Coors Light and Blue Moon). Blue Moon kept an arms length dis- tance from the Coors portfolio for years to grow as a "discovery beer" until the cat was fully out of the bag. At the time, smart marketing strategy was to let the beer build a fan base without the cred- ibility baggage of coming from a mega brewer. So what's changed, and how might that impact craft brewing? Research shows that, increasingly, the craft consumer thinks of craft beer in terms of small batch and quality ingredients. The majority of respondents to our research listed these as the defi ning factors of craft. Nearly six times as many responses defi ned craft beer as small batch rather than small brewery. This shouldn't be sur- prising. Spirit distillers have for some years been executing "sin- gle barrel" or "small batch" SKUs. The rarity of bour- bon from a single barrel, its unique characteristics (and some good marketing) have helped make small batch or limited edition brands desirable while pre- senting a "halo effect" to the distillers. That's the op- portunity that larger brew- ers may be missing. BIG BEER & CRAFT Unsurprisingly, as craft beer popularity has grown, Big Beer has bought signif- icant stakes in craft brew- ers. Regional favorites like IS BIG BEER THE FUTURE OF CRAFT? BY MIKE NICKERSON & BROOKE EDGE, PHD the craft consumer thinks of craft beer in terms of small batch and quality ingredients. The majority of respondents to our research listed these as the defi ning factors of craft. Nearly six times as many responses defi ned craft beer as small batch rather than small brewery. This shouldn't be sur- prising. Spirit distillers have for some years been executing "sin-